THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. 95

actionary policy. Higher education was suppressed,
and in Moldavia the prince declared that, as the
offices of state were open to the boyards alone, it was
absurd to give to the rest of the nation the same
instruction as to them. But it was easier to deal
with the schools than with the men of letters. A
great poet bade the Roumanian people u awake from
the sleep of death," and his verses, set to music,
became the national anthem of the patriotic party.
Political, as well as literary events, were rapidly
leading up to the great revolution of 1848, which,
sweeping over Europe, took the Danubian princi-
palities in its course. In 1842 the Czar, finding that
the prince of Wallachia was not sufficiently docile,
induced the Porte to depose him. No fewer than
thirty-seven candidates carne forward for the vacant
throne, but the choice of the boyards finally fell upon
George Bibescou, who appeared before his people in
the costume of Michael the Brave. He became in-
volved in a dispute with the national assembly over
some mining concessions, and prevailed upon the
Sultan to suspend that refractory body for the re-
mainder of its term. This aroused against him the
intense animosity of the great nobles, who were
always jealous of any one of their number who had
ascended the princely throne over the heads of his
fellows. The lesser nobility, on the other hand, em-
braced his cause, and, when the Revolution broke
out, it was directed not against him, but against
the influence of Russia. The spark was kindled in
Paris in February 1848, and the flames rapidly
spread eastward. In Hungary the Roumanians